Read, Watch or Listen

Forty-two years after Girls Just Want to Have Fun, Cyndi Lauper sits in a north Brooklyn studio with 26-year-old Gracie Abrams, trading stories and nodding to Rickie Lee Jones’ The Last Chance Texaco. They connect over writer’s block and the trance of a song arriving whole. Lauper, fresh off a 69-date farewell tour and bound for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame with a Las Vegas residency ahead, praises Abrams’ rapid-fire writing. Abrams, coming off a four-year run that included Swift’s Eras Tour and nights at Madison Square Garden, is plotting what to say next.

Prepared by Emily Rhodes and reviewed by editorial team.